KOICHIRO MATSUURA PROPOSES
OPERATION TO SAFEGUARD THE HERITAGE OF JERUSALEM
Paris, October 16 (No.2001-107)
- Opening the general policy debate of the 31st session of UNESCO’s General
Conference today, Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura called for the launch,
under the auspices of UNESCO, of “international effort in favour of the
safeguarding of the heritage of the Old City of Jerusalem.”
“In these dark days of our
shared history, with the shadow of fear, fire and blood hanging over us, it is a
propitious moment for a significant act on the part of the international
community that might betoken its sense of unity and desire to pull together in a
major endeavour of co-operation, concord and peace,” Mr Matsuura declared.
Provided the initiative for the
safeguard of Jerusalem’s heritage meets with broad endorsement, Mr Matsuura
proposed to seek the means necessary to fund an operation that would be
conducted “strictly on professional and technical footing, removed from all
political considerations.”
“I seek from the
international community,” he declared, “what I see as a duty of self-respect
in this period of bewilderment and mindlessness, let us perform a highly
symbolic act which sets forth our faith in the future of the human family at
peace with itself anew.”
In the face of the events of
September 11, “indispensable political, diplomatic, security and financial
initiatives which are being taken by the international community must be
complemented by others, of a cultural dimension,” Mr Matsuura said, adding:
“These tragic events will have suddenly placed the values which are at the
heart of UNESCO’s mission - tolerance, dialogue, respect and mutual
understanding: in one word, the culture of peace - at the forefront of
international priorities.”
Mr Matsuura called for “reinforced
efforts to deepen knowledge and understanding of the diversity of cultures, and
readiness to accept one another, including our differences, and to welcome the
other in willingness to live together.” Mr Matsuura highlighted the need to
establish, at the international level, both “instruments for a new form of
dialogue” as well as “defining new rules, establishing norms and regulatory
principles, or simply forms of operation, that are acceptable to all.”
The Director-General presented
several aspects of UNESCO’s reinforced standard-setting work, designed to
protect and consolidate “common public goods”.
The draft Declaration on
Cultural Diversity, presented to the General Conference for adoption, the
first international text in this field, defines diversity as a factor of
inclusion rather than division;
Work on the development
of an international instrument on the safeguard of intangible heritage
which “is in due course to complement the 1972 World Heritage Convention”;
The Convention for the
Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage which meets a pressing need
and will provide for “a complete range of standard-setting instruments
for the protection of tangible heritage”;
The preparation of
international legislation enshrining the fundamental principles of
bioethics. In this regard, Mr Matsuura recently reiterated to the
Secretary-General of the United Nations UNESCO’s readiness to undertake
the preparatory scientific work concerning the elaboration of a Convention
forbidding human cloning;
Still concerning
bioethics, the elaboration of an international instrument on genetic data,
which will address issues of confidentiality and genetically-based
discrimination.
Regarding UNESCO’s activities
over the coming two years, the Director-General expressed his wish to “focus
work and resources on five areas considered as absolute priorities: basic
education; freshwater resources and ecosystems; the ethics of science and
technology; diversity, pluralism and intercultural dialogue; universal access to
information, notably information in the public domain.”
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